Patent Application
20140374124
The present invention is generally directed to a horseshoe, and more particularly to a race-horseshoe which is relatively inexpensive with unitary construction and provides a splaying feature. Additionally, the present invention includes a stabilizer feature at the underside surface of the horseshoe to facilitate especially race horses while they negotiate curves/bends on a track.
It has been the object of many horseshoe designers and farriers to provide a horseshoe which is hoof-friendly and which mimics to some extent the movement of a horse's hoof when the horse is walking or running, especially on a hard surface. Various attempts have been made over decades to obviate the rigidity of conventional metallic horseshoes by introducing nonmetallic or composite elements that provide selected degrees of flexibility and resilience. It is desirable to provide a simple unitary, somewhat flexible construction for the horseshoe, and it also desirable to provide a horseshoe with an advantageous stabilizing feature, especially for race horseshoes.
It has however been found that the prior art horseshoe designs which provide resilience invariably have a composite construction, or use several parts and components, and do not offer simplicity, reliability or cost effectiveness. Those prior art horseshoes which by design use predominantly resilient material, are generally less durable (—shorter life—) than the conventional rigid metallic designs which might however restrict hoof-expansion and thus create increased stress in the hoof and legs of the horse, particularly during racing.
Despite the availability of horseshoe designs providing shock absorption, flexibility and such features, there is still a need for a horseshoe design which is characterized by simplicity, economy, controlled-splaying and including a stabilizing feature to assist race horses when they negotiate curves on a race track.
The present invention intends to obviate complexity and certain less desirable aspects of prior art horseshoe design, and provides a relatively less expensive and very simple unitary design that aims at causing and allowing the much desired splaying of the horseshoe particularly during racing. The present invention also aims at providing structural stabilizing features in the horseshoe to improve stability for race-horses while negotiating curves on race tracks.
The present invention provides a simple and economical horseshoe design, unitary in construction and preferably of metallic material. Additionally in the present invention, the underside surface of the horseshoe may include a stabilizer feature that is configured to provide a predetermined negative camber with respect to the shoe undersurface, to increase stability while a race-horse negotiates curves on a race-track.
One embodiment of the invention in its broad form resides in a horseshoe which when in use is capable of causing and accommodating splaying of a horse hoof, said horseshoe comprising a generally U shaped unitary single piece solid metal body including a heel-region and including left and right body portions having metallic undersurfaces lying on a common bottom plane of the horseshoe, and a central toe area, said central toe area including a crescent shaped spring element that includes a convex outer edge and a concave inner edge, said spring element having resilience in a vertically upward direction that is perpendicular to said common bottom plane, said convex outer edge being substantially in said common bottom plane, said concave inner edge in use projecting below said common bottom plane by a projection-portion having a chosen design dimension which upon the horseshoe in use impacting ground, gets resiliently pushed vertically upwards to deliberately and mechanically cause and allow said left and right body portions of the horseshoe to splay, the left and right body portions including stabilizer means comprising rows of bead-like formations on the horseshoe underside, whereby, when said central toe area is not impacting the ground, said left and right body portions of the horseshoe tend to be repetitively and resiliently restored to their original positions without splaying. The crescent shaped spring element forms a cavity with the underside of the horse hoof in use, which cavity may be filled with a compressible material to obviate accumulation of debris. There may be two/three rows of bead-like formations or projections comprising the stabilizer means. The bead-like formations may have their tips lying on a surface that shows a negative camber so as to enhance the road grip caused by the bead-like formations.
A second embodiment comprises a generally U shaped compliant unitary single-piece solid metal horseshoe having left and right wings which lie in a common bottom plane and having a toe area integral with said left and right wings, said metal horseshoe including a compliant spring element integral with and bridging said left and right wings and having vertically upward resilience and acting as a leaf-spring, said leaf-spring in use having a projection of a chosen design dimension formed substantially perpendicular to and projecting below said common bottom plane, said leaf-spring having a first unstressed state and a second resiliently stressed state, said leaf-spring attaining its said second stressed state upon loading of the horseshoe in use by ground impact to push said projection resiliently upwards, said leaf-spring in its second stressed state exerting resilient horizontal pressure sideways on said left and right wings so as to deliberately cause mechanical splaying of said left and right wings as desired, said leaf-spring tending to be repetitively restored to its first unstressed state when the horseshoe in use is not loaded or not impacting ground, whereupon said left and right wings are restored to their positions prior to splaying, said metal horseshoe additionally including stabilizer means comprising a plurality of rows of bead-like elements integrally formed on an undersurface of said metal horseshoe to provide additional road grip while the inventive horseshoe is being used on a race track. The rows of bead-like elements may comprise projections that are staggered.
A third embodiment resides in a horseshoe capable of causing and accommodating splaying of a horse hoof in use, said horseshoe comprising a generally U shaped unitary single-piece solid metal body and including left and right body portions lying on a bottom plane of the horseshoe, and a central toe portion integrally bridging the left and right body portions which are capable of resilient splaying, said central toe portion including a generally crescent shaped integral leaf-spring with a first unstressed state and a second stressed state, said crescent shaped leaf-spring having a convex edge and a concave edge, the concave edge having a projecting-portion equal to a chosen design dimension and projecting below said bottom plane in said first unstressed state, said generally crescent shaped leaf-spring attaining its said second stressed state by loading of the horseshoe when the horseshoe in use impacts ground, said projecting-portion of the leaf-spring being resiliently pushed upwards to reach its said second stressed state to deliberately cause said left and right body portions to splay as desired, whereby the crescent shaped leaf-spring continually and alternately goes through its said second stressed and said first unstressed states repetitively when the horse hoof in use impacts ground and is off ground, the metal horseshoe additionally comprising stabilizer means in the form of a plurality of rows of bead-like elements integrally formed on the horseshoe bottom surface to provide additional road grip for the horseshoe in use while on a race track.
Expediently, the projection-portion referred to supra may be re-formed and become defined in use when a farrier prepares the inventive horseshoe for installation. It is noted that the crescent shape of the toe area while the horseshoe is in use, forms a cavity which may be filled with a resilient compressible material with intent to prevent accumulation of dirt and debris in the cavity. The horseshoe as aforesaid includes a stabilizer feature provided at the underside of the horseshoe, the stabilizing feature being preferably configured to provide a negative camber with respect to the shoe undersurface, to improve traction while the horse negotiates curves on a race-track.
Advantageously, the horseshoe of the present invention is unitary and non-composite in construction, thereby keeping the construction simple and the cost down. A variation uses a chord-like leaf-spring member bridging the left and right wings of the horseshoe instead of the crescent shaped leaf-spring at the central toe area. In such a variation too, the undersurface of the horseshoe is provided with a stabilizer feature. The stabilizer feature may comprise rows of beads formed integrally on the underside of the horseshoe to facilitate the horse to negotiate curves on a race-track. Advantageously, the rows of beads may be configured to form a negative camber with respect to the horseshoe undersurface.
Expediently, the horseshoe referred to in any of the previous paragraphs could include a groove on either side of the spring element. Said grooves serve to separate the crescent shaped toe area from the left and right wings, and assist in bending the left and right wings as necessary by the farrier during farrier-preparation and sizing of the horseshoe. The grooves may have a cross-sectional profile such as a V shaped profile, or alternatively semi-circular or semi-elliptical profiles, depending on the design choice. Preferably, the stabilizer feature could comprise two or three rows of beads or the like formed integrally with the horseshoe on the underside surface of the horseshoe. In the three-stabilizer rows version, the innermost row may be offset from the other rows. Other modifications comprising the stabilizer feature are conceivable and are within the ambit of the invention. The stabilizer feature, as aforesaid is intended to enhance the stability of the horse especially during racing and while negotiating curves in the race-track.
Preferably, the grooves referred to supra may have a profile chosen from semi-circular, semi-elliptical, arcuate and V-shaped profiles.
A more detailed understanding of the invention may be had from the following description of preferred embodiments which are exemplary and not intended to be limiting, and to be understood in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention is provided below in the context of the accompanying figures that illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention. While the invention is described in connection with such embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to any particular embodiment. On the contrary, the scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents. For the purpose of example, numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention
The present invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the present invention is not unnecessarily obscured.
In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made. The embodiments included herein are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized including changes that may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The description herein is by way of example only, and is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the claims and their equivalents.
Described hereinafter are embodiments of a unitary non-composite horseshoe which is preferably metallic and having a configuration including a stabilizer feature on the underside of the horseshoe, wherein the stabilizer feature serves to minimize lateral shift of the horseshoe during racing.
Optionally, the first embodiment may have the following features:
The convex outer edge in the first embodiment may have its ends substantially in level with the common bottom plane, and the projection-portion is at its maximum at substantially a center region of the concave inner edge. The projection-portion 110 during its resilient deformation determines the magnitude of splay of the left and right body portions. The central toe area of the horseshoe may be integral with the left and right body portions 102 and 103, or may be joined to the left and right body portions by welding, brazing, or other similar methods of mechanical joining. Alternatively, the entire horseshoe may be obtained by forging or casting, or a combination of casting and forging, or by welding.
The horseshoe might comprise an alloy material such as for example hardened spring steel 17-4 PH or any other suitable grade, e.g., cast/forged spring steel alloy, or nonferrous material such as for example, titanium. The central toe area of the horseshoe may be obtained by a separate forging operation. Alternatively, the central toe area, and left and right body portions may all be cast together (with optional forging followed) from material chosen from a group comprising titanium, spring steel alloy and any desired grade of spring steel, e.g., heat-treated spring steel, or hardened spring steel 17-4 PH.
As a variation, the central toe area of the horseshoe might include an elongated recess 111 adjacent the convex outer edge 108. Preferably, the central toe area is devoid of nail-holes 107 which may be generally limited to the left and right body portions of the horseshoe.
In another embodiment as illustrated in
Those skilled in the art are aware that when a race horse runs on a race-track at 30-40 miles an hour, the entire hoof-impact duration can be of the order of milliseconds, and it is thus desirable to deliberately cause and assist a predetermined degree of splaying of the left and right body portions of the horseshoe during the hoof-impact duration. Additionally, the horse on a race track needs stabilizing assistance while negotiating curves. The present invention aims at achieving the much desired stability and splaying action without complicated gadgetry in the horseshoe or without the use of any composite materials constituting the horseshoe.
It is further to be noted that where the sizing of the horseshoe or other significant installation-preparation may not be intrinsically necessary, the farrier would pick up a horseshoe which is illustrated in any of
In all the above embodiments, it is to be noted that deliberate mechanical splaying of the left and right body portions is caused by the resilient action of the chord-like spring element or the resilient action of the leaf-spring, as the case may be. It is further to be noted that action of accommodating splaying per-se by the horseshoe is not the same as the action of causing the splaying. In the present invention, deliberate splaying is caused by the construction and function of the inventive horseshoe, and additionally, the present horseshoe construction also accommodates horse-induced splaying. Further, in any of the above embodiments, the generally U shaped body of the horseshoe could comprise a single piece which is obtained by any process chosen from forging, casting, blanking, welding, brazing or a combination of casting and forging. Other methods of obtaining the U shaped unitary body are within the purview of the invention. As aforesaid, in one embodiment, the horseshoe includes a chord-like leaf-spring member which causes the left and right body portions of the horseshoe to resiliently splay as desired.
In all the embodiments and their modifications in the present inventions, the material for the horseshoe might comprise suitable metallic material chosen from titanium, spring steel alloy, or ferrous material such as a suitable grade of steel, or spring steel. The horseshoe might comprise a U shaped body obtained by a forging operation using precipitation hardened spring steel 17-4 PH.
Preferred embodiments described above selectively offer one or more of the following advantages:
1. The preferred embodiment of the inventive horseshoe as described is of unitary construction, not composite, and requires no assembly, and accordingly eliminates additional assembly costs, and includes a stabilizing feature at the underside of the horseshoe.
2. The preferred embodiment being of unitary-construction, may be mass produced by forging, casting, blanking or a combination thereof, the mass production serving to lower the manufacturing costs.
3. The inventive horseshoe is metallic, and lasts at least as long as other prior art metallic horseshoes.
4. The inventive horseshoes when offered in precipitation hardened spring steel 17-4 PH are rustproof and more desirable than prior art metallic ferrous based horseshoes.
5. The splaying action caused by the resilient action of the leaf-spring (or spring element) in all the embodiments is desirable, especially for race horses.
6. The stabilizing means/feature provided on the undersurface of the horseshoe as illustrated, serves to stabilize and enhance the ground-grip for the horse on curves of a track especially during racing.
7. The optional grooves provided selectively at either side of the central toe portion facilitate the bending of the left and right wings during sizing of the horseshoe by the farrier (farrier-preparation).
8. The stabilizer means could comprise two rows or three rows of bead-like formations integrally formed on the underside of the horseshoe. The rows of bead-like formations may be staggered and could be disposed to form a negative camber on the horseshoe underside.
In the foregoing detailed description of embodiments of the invention, various features may have been grouped together in a single exemplary embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments of the invention require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description of embodiments of the invention, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. It is understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. It is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the invention should therefore be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” where present, are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein,” respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc., if used, are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.
This application is a Continuation in Part of earlier U.S. application Ser. No. 13/385,172 which in turn is a Continuation in Part of U.S. Ser. No. 13/261,128 which has a filing date of Jan. 9, 2012, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. This application also claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/962,399, filed Nov. 6, 2013, the contents of which are also incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13261128 | Jan 2012 | US |
| Child | 14121176 | US | |
| Parent | 13385172 | Feb 2012 | US |
| Child | 13261128 | US |
